


Authenticity

by Weevilo707



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Emotional Manipulation, Fluff and Angst, Fuck Sazed (The Adventure Zone), Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, it's sad at first but the ending is super sweet i swear, past sazed/taako - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-08
Updated: 2018-03-08
Packaged: 2019-03-28 17:13:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13908567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weevilo707/pseuds/Weevilo707
Summary: Taako knew he had a soulmate, at least according to the simple but elegant tattoo that wrapped down his arm. He didn't ping Sazed as someone who matched it, didn't imagine he was the kind of person he was destined to be with. After some time though, he'd begun to notice some things, and that's what people always said, right? A lot of time it wasn't obvious right away, you needed to wait and get to learn your soulmate before you realized it was them.Taakohada soulmate, back before Glamour Springs when his life fell apart. He had a soulmate, and it wasn't Kravitz.





	Authenticity

Taako had always tried not to put too much stock into the whole soulmate thing. Of course, tried being the key word. He couldn't help but be curious about some shit though. Like, he had one, clearly. At least according to the tattoo running down his arm, although Taako couldn’t help but feel like he got the short end of the stick when it came to that.

It wasn’t an ugly tattoo, far from it, even if it wasn’t exactly his normal style. The image of a bright blue sapphire was emblazoned on his shoulder, perfectly circular with five dark feathers around it. Lines of music notes ran swirling down his arm from it before curling off right before his hand. The only color was the blue gem, and overall the piece was real elegant and shit.

It was just, gods, he wondered if they could get any  _ more _ vague. Sure, he’d heard stories all growing up, that your tattoos don’t make a lot of sense most of the time but once you meet your soulmate you just  _ know. _

Taako had also heard that that was bullshit, that in most normal cases it takes time before you realize all the little ways someone matches your mark. Being able to find yourself in someone else’s tattoo tended to be a bit easier, but not everyone went around with them on full display and shit.

Sazed was one of those people who didn’t.

Not that Taako could care less about that at first. Sazed was just an employee, his only employee, yeah, but Taako was more interested in his new cooking show than some dude. It must've been- It was a lot of work. He’d put a lot of energy into making this happen, so much so that it was all a blur. But he did it, and he managed it from nothing, and so that was way more important.

So yeah, other than a passing notice that Sazed’s eyes were almost the same exact color as the bright blue sapphire on his shoulder, he didn’t give it a second thought at first.

And then Sazed shifted from a sort of hapless hired hand to enthralled fan, and then to lavishing Taako with compliments and smiles every time he finished a show. Then well, then Taako began to notice some things.

The first was the music. As far as Taako knew, Sazed couldn’t play an instrument to save his life, but one day there was a little radio in the cart that definitely hadn’t been there before. Taako’s first impulse with that was annoyance and irritation. They were still starting out, shit was tight, they couldn’t afford to go wasting money like that. He didn’t say anything though, cause whatever. If the dude wanted to go blowing his paycheck it wasn’t any of Taako’s business.

But at that point he had started to have music playing pretty much constantly, which like, it wasn’t unpleasant. It made the long rides between towns less boring at least, even if the music was crackly and hard to hear most of the time.

None of that meant anything though. Lots of people liked music, lots of people had blue eyes. Taako guessed Sazed was nice, but he was pretty sure he liked the compliments and positive attention more than him. Still, those  _ did _ go a long way, he could admit that.

It was only when Sazed started feeding birds the stale food left over from the less productive shows, collecting the feathers that fell loose, that Taako started to get suspicious.

And so he started trying to pay even more attention to the dude.

It wasn’t  _ hard _ to figure out that Sazed was into him. That had been pretty obvious even when Taako hadn’t been bothering. Who could blame him, too?

What was hard was figuring out if  _ he _ was into this whole thing. In all the time Taako had known him, over a year now at that point, he hadn’t seen his soulmark. It must not’ve been somewhere obvious. Taako knew he’d seen his. Cooking in exclusively long sleeves would be a pretty bad idea after all.

It’d make this so much easier if he could see what Sazed’s looked like though. If he just knew whether or not he was  _ supposed _ to like this guy.

As it stood though, Sazed was. Well, he was a little plain. Pretty simple. Not the kind of person Taako would’ve imagined for his soulmate.

But the tattoo was also a little plain, and pretty simple.

And most importantly, Sazed  _ liked _ him.

Taako loved the attention, and if the dude was his soulmate then he was sure that would extend to him too with enough time.

And so Taako would try to find it endearing when Sazed would leave dingy feathers on the clean work spaces Taako needed to cook. Would try to laugh when Sazed would coerce him into dancing with him to music both of them could barely hear through the shitty radio. Try to convince himself that the different shades of blue were so close, any differences he saw were a trick of the light.  

Two years they’d been traveling together when Sazed finally decided to speak up. He was cooking, but it wasn’t for a show. They still had a couple more days to get to the next town, and so this was just dinner.

“Taako, can I talk to you?” Sazed asked, and he sounded nervous. Taako didn’t bother looking over at him, flipping the chopped vegetables in the pan.

“Talk all you want my dude, ain’t no one stopping you,” he said casually.

“No, Taako, I need you to pay attention to me. This is important,” he said, and he sounded serious. So Taako nodded, taking a bit of broccoli out of the pan to taste. Eh, could use a bit longer.

“I’m all ears,” he said, letting his long ears flick for emphasis.

“Damn it Taako, will you stop cooking and  _ look at me _ for five minute?” Sazed snapped, and he didn’t get angry often. Irritated and passive aggressive sometimes yeah, but Taako couldn’t blame him for that. He was a lot to put up with constantly, he knew that. Still, Sazed didn’t get outright angry much.

So, Taako turned off the stove, removed the stir fry from the heat and turned towards him, arms crossed.

“You’ve got five minutes. Better put em to good use,” he said. That seemed to be good enough for Sazed, who relaxed some.

“Thank you,” he said, and then he was back to nervous again. “Look, Taako-”

“That’s what I’m doing.” An irritated glare, and yeah, he deserved that.

“Taako, I wanted to show you this for a while now, but I just- well, here,” he said, kind of fumbling with his words. Instead of explaining himself he lifted up his shirt some and-

Huh.

Well then.

There was a tattoo there, along his side. The first thing Taako noticed was that it was  _ bright _ , the colors almost obnoxiously so. It mostly seemed to be of cooking supplies, done in a cute style, ribbons of pearls and other precious gems connecting them.

Loud, bright, superficial and cheap seemed to sum up the style pretty well. And yeah. That certainly sounded like him.

There was a smile on Taako’s face, and he couldn’t tell for the life of him if it was forced or not.

“Come on my dude, that’s pretty- a little obvious there, ain’t it? Coulda bothered to say something earlier ya know,” he said. The smile had to be real, this was good. This was fucking sweet. He had a _ soulmate. _

“Didn’t want to scare you away,” Sazed said, and Taako could understand that. There was a part of him right now that was terrified. He forced himself to push past that though, because a larger part of him wanted this. Wanted, well, he still wasn’t sure if it was Sazed he wanted, but he wanted to believe in this soulmate junk.

He wanted to not be alone anymore, and Sazed was the person who was going to be there, so he wanted Sazed.

“You’re gonna have to try a lot harder than that to scare me away,” Taako said. Leaving the stove, he crossed the short distance of the wagon to where Sazed was standing. Scratchy, distorted music was playing from the shitty radio, a dingy gray feather was tied into his hair, and his eyes were  _ almost _ the same exact shade of blue as the sapphire on Taako’s shoulder.

It wasn’t what he’d been expecting, but it was close enough, and so Taako pulled him down into a kiss.

—

Shit was good for a while, after that. 

Sizzle it Up with Taako was really starting to kick off. The first two years had been touch and go some, but he was starting to get a reputation now. There were towns he could go to and start to expect a full audience, which made it easier to try and spread to new places.

Being with Sazed was about what he expected. Predictability wasn’t a bad thing though. There was something to be said for stability. 

So when Sazed pulled him away from cooking to dance with him in the limited space of the wagon, Taako’s laughter was a little more genuine. When Taako brushed feathers off of his bed, sticking some haphazardly in Sazed’s hair when he passed, his smile was a little less forced.

Taako wasn’t sure what being in love felt like, but he figured this was close enough that it didn’t matter.

So yeah, things were real fucking good for a while.

And then it all started to fall apart.

The thing was, Taako knew he was a hard person to get along with. He was well aware that he was a fucking asshole. He figured Sazed knew that too. He was his soulmate after all, if anyone was supposed to be able to  _ get _ him, it was Sazed.

But as time when on, another two years, and then two more, he seemed to turn more and more bitter. Which made Taako more snippy and childish and rude, which pissed off Sazed more.

The strings of compliments lessened, the laughter and smiles became forced again, or mocking.

Taako was, fuck, he was trying. It didn't seem like he was trying a lot of the time but he was. He wasn’t a good person, but he wanted Sazed to be happy (he wanted the attention and praise back, because he was selfish).

This was just a rough patch though, everyone had them. He was still in- Sazed was still his soulmate. This would clear up eventually.

When Sazed asked about sharing the spotlight in Sizzle In Up, Taako had a feeling he understood where some of this tension was coming from.

Without giving it a second thought, Taako shot the idea down.

It was just- Sazed had to understand. This was  _ his. _ It was his cooking, his magic, his  _ personality _ that had gotten Sizzle It Up off the ground and into the successful show it was.

It was the one goddamn thing Taako had to his claim that wasn’t a complete and utter failure, and he couldn’t- he wanted to keep it that way.

He didn’t tell Sazed that though. Instead he fed him some bullshit excuse about merchandise, but he had to understand. He had to know this was too damn important to Taako for him to hand half away to someone else, even his soulmate.

Whether or not Sazed ever actually got it though, Taako didn’t find out.

Because a month later, he was doing a show in Glamour Springs, and his entire world came collapsing down around him.

He sat in the back of the wagon as Sazed drove them away for two days straight, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. It didn’t take him too long to narrow down the possibilities until he knew.

Taako wasn’t paying attention when the cart finally came to a stop, didn’t bother looking up with Sazed walked back from his spot at the driver’s seat.

“Taako, you should rest. It’s- I don’t know what, fuck, I don’t know what happened. But you should rest,” Sazed said, his voice gentle in a way he hadn’t been in a long time.

“The elderberries. It must’ve been the elderberries,” Taako managed to speak, his voice sounding horsed from the past two days of more crying than he’d done during the rest of his life combined.

“Oh. That. That makes sense,” Sazed said, and Taako curled even further in on himself. “Look, you need to rest. I’ll keep watch,” he added, and reluctantly Taako nodded. He didn't feel like sleeping, but he'd been awake for two days straight at this point, so he didn't have much of a choice. Shifting himself on the bed, he laid down facing away from Sazed and the rest of the wagon, pulling the blanket up over his head.

“Love you,” Taako croaked out. It was something Sazed said a lot (less recently, a lot less recently. Taako couldn’t quite place the last time Sazed had said it to him, thinking about it now) but he hadn't ever- he'd never said it.

For some reason though, he felt like he  _ needed _ to right now. He needed  _ something _ right now.

“Yeah,” Sazed said back simply, and that wasn’t what Taako needed.

When he woke up, the cart was empty, most of the money and the horse were gone, and he was alone.

Somehow, even though he should have seen this coming, he hadn’t. He had no idea, and the realization that Sazed, that his fucking soulmate was  _ gone _ felt like someone had gone and left a big rusted knife right through his heart.

He deserved it, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.

Once he was over the devastation of it all enough to form coherent thoughts again, Taako didn’t know what to do. He had to get away. He had to hide. If anyone found him, he’d be killed.

Holding his arm out, Taako stared at the simple design running down it for a long time.

He’d heard stories, of people who’s soulmates ended in tragedy. That always seemed to mean death or circumstances outside of the soulmates control keeping them away though. He couldn’t think of a time he heard of someone being abandoned like this.

In some of the more dramatic stories, he’d heard of the ones left behind destroying their soul mark. The reminder of the person they loved too painful to look at.

Taako brought his hand up to his shoulder, nails dug painfully into the skin around the sapphire, and holding his breath for several long, excruciating seconds…

And then he let his hand drop back down with a sigh.

The tattoo was unharmed, the only marks he left several small white indents that went away after a few moments, the nails not having even broken the skin. Grabbing his wand with a shaking hand, he cast prestidigitation on the arm instead, hiding the tattoo without any fuss.

Standing up, Taako started to gather up what he needed so he could leave. He was working on autopilot, but it didn’t matter as long as he got away.

He was completely alone again, but that wasn’t anything new.

—

Kravitz had always had a bit of a fascination with things like fate and death. In his life it had been a lot less focused on the death part, at least from what he could remember. Which really, the things in that category weren’t many.

He  _ did _ remember he used to think about his destiny a lot, and while he wished he could say it was in some sort of abstract philosophical way, that wasn’t the case. Most of the thoughts of his future been focused on the intricate design that ran down his arm, and trying to think of what the person it was supposed to represent was like. He was fairly certain that his ultimate fate of dying young and becoming a reaper for the Raven Queen had never crossed his mind as a possibility.

It wasn’t what he’d had in mind, but he’d always believed the rules of life and death were important and there for a reason, so he could accept them.

He hadn’t given thought about whoever his soulmate had been in ages. He was sure they had died centuries ago, but despite that, Kravitz was currently resisting the urge to stare down at the tattoo on his arm, thinking about them.

The one thing he’d always been certain about was that they must’ve been a profoundly fascinating person. Honestly, that idea had only increased with time.

The center of his arm had an image of a rather plain frying pan, but that was about where it stopped being ordinary. Outlining the pan were these jagged pink crystals, and bright purple stylized weasels? Mongooses? (Mongeese?) ran down his arm. The oddest part though, the one that kept him wondering every so often even so much later were the strips of arcane symbols he couldn’t identify that banded down his arm.

At one point, years after his death, he’d asked the Raven Queen if she knew what they meant. She hadn’t. Which probably meant they weren’t any accurate arcane symbols, but he still found himself thinking every so often.

Like now, but the main think calling his attention with that wasn’t the arcane writing. It was weirdly enough, the pink crystals.

Because this laboratory filled with a frankly ridiculous number of bounties and necromancers and ghosts was completely covered in pink crystals the same as the ones depicted on his arm. He didn’t need to go into his proper form to check, he’d stared at it long enough over the hundreds of years to have it more than memorized.

Which, it was odd, but it didn’t mean anything. Kravitz half seriously told himself not to get his hopes up until he saw mongooses running around.

Unsurprisingly that didn’t happen, but that was about the only thing that wasn’t surprising about that night.

First off, he truly was better at his job than that in normal circumstances. That was an outlier, and he would blame it on being a little bit distracted during the whole night and the situation in general being so bizarre.

Still, once it was over nothing had noticeably changed for Kravitz. He hadn’t expected it too, there wasn’t much that could shake up a routine that had been kept for centuries. Even something as odd as a near successful breakout of the eternal stockade and and having to deal with just about the most incomprehensible people he’d ever met.

And then the three strange bounties that he’d given a second chance to died 11 more times, and Kravitz found himself both disappointed and befuddled.

And then he saw the entire town worth of bounties with several thousand deaths each, and he was straight up befuddled. He didn’t have the energy for confusion anymore.

Whatever had happened there, it was unheard of in all of the time he’d been working for the Raven Queen, and she gave him permission to go talk to those three again. Figure out what in the world was going on before they put out any official bounties.

Kravitz wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting when he waited for at least one of them to get back to what was apparently their home (on the moon? That new moon that had showed up a few years ago? At least this explained that whole thing). Whatever it was though, it hadn’t been Taako (eight deaths originally, now 19) showing up looking utterly exhausted and barely even starting at the sight of the grim reaper in his living room.

“That one’s on me,” Taako said, sounding like a strained attempt at a joke.

“It is?” Kravitz asked, not sure what to take seriously with these folks. He was pretty sure it was a joke though, despite the fact that he didn’t look to be in much of a joking mood.

He was wearing what looked like it was a nice outfit at the beginning of the day, but at this point it was covered in dust and grime and a bit singed in places. Kravitz could see cuts and bruises forming on the exposed parts of his arms and legs (which was a lot, not that he was looking) but nothing indicating he’d died.

“I mean, no, it’s not like, I didn’t kill anyone, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Taako said, pausing to rub his eyes and seeming to try to shake himself out of whatever funk he appeared to be in. Kravitz didn’t know this man much, but he couldn’t help but feel bad for him. He looked like he was barely holding himself together.

“Look, I just, you wanna know about all those new deaths we got right? Well sit down and I’ll start explaining,” Taako said, heading towards the couch. Kravitz nodded, moving to sit across from him.

“Your deaths, and the thousands of deaths raked up by that town,” he clarified, and that seemed to catch his full attention for perhaps the first time that night.

“Wait, is Refuge in trouble? My man, it wasn’t their fault,” he said, and he actually sounded concerned.

“If that’s the case than they won’t be, but I do need to know what happened down there,” Kravitz said, and luckily Taako started to explain.

It was more than Kravitz had ever expected. No wonder Taako was so tired. By the end of the detailed retelling Kravitz was exhausted, and as a dead person he didn’t even need to sleep.

When the Raven Queen called him back to the astral plane, Kravitz found himself wishing for a moment that he could stay longer. Mostly because he still wasn’t sure what to do about all of this, but somewhat because he found himself worried about Taako. It was ridiculous, but despite his flagrant trampling of the rules of life and death, he seemed like a good person.

The fact that he’d met him in a place covered in pink tourmaline didn’t mean anything. After all, as far as he knew nothing else fit.

“I’m afraid I have to leave now, but I would like to continue this conversation later,” he told Taako. He seemed fine with that, handing over his stone of farspeech frequency without a second thought.

When he was about to cut a hole through the planes to get back home, he found himself hesitating.

“Taako I- I’m sure this isn’t my place to pry, but are you alright?” he found himself asking, and Taako raised an eyebrow at that.

“I’m still alive, aren’t I?” he said, in a way that was clearly supposed to be a joke. “Why?”

“Nothing, I suppose it makes sense after dying so many times. You just seem exhausted,” he said, and Taako’s shoulders seemed to slump some at that.

“Yeah, I mean. It was a real bad mission my guy. Ain’t gonna sugar coat it,” he said, and Kravitz nodded.

“Well, I hope you feel better soon,” he said, and he truly meant that. Taako nodded, and Kravitz took that as his cue to leave.

He didn’t know what it was, but there was something about that elf that was truly fascinating.

—

He didn’t just abandon him.

He’d been trying to  _ kill _ him.

Taako had been trying to wrap his head around that thought and push it from his mind simultaneously since he got the vision from the chalice.

He thought Sazed had hated him for killing all those people. He hated  _ himself _ for killing all those people. He could at least understand that. He could accept that Sazed hated him for it, and still keep some distance from it, because it had been an  _ accident. _

But that wasn’t what happened. Sazed had just hated him. Had for a long time. Those people had only died because Taako had been dumb enough not to taste his food, and a horrible enough person to drive his fucking  _ soulmate _ to murder.

The only reason he hadn’t taken the chalice was because he felt physically sick at the idea of facing Sazed now.

He just wanted to go back to his room and, fuck, he didn’t even know. Something. He was starting to wish he’d been the one to lose an arm back in the weird lab instead of Merle. Maybe if he asked nicely Magnus would do him a favor and cut it off anyway.

He didn’t get to rest though, because the Grim Reaper was making a house call, and not even the fun kind.

It made sense though, they should’ve known they’d be seeing the dude with all of the deaths they just raked up. He seemed surprisingly chill about it though, or at least willing to listen. Taako had been on edge and distracted throughout most of it, but he still tried to give the whole story.

Once he was gone though Taako was relieved to be alone. Heading into his room he flopped onto his bed. After a moment he let the prestidigitation down on his arm, the tattoo appearing before him.

The sight made his stomach flip, and while that wasn’t anything new it had lessened somewhat over the years. It was somehow even worse than it had been those first few weeks on his own.

And yet despite that, underneath the nausea there was… there was fucking  _ nothing. _ He should be devastated, hurt, betrayed down to his  _ core. _ He should want to get out there and find Sazed and fucking  _ destroy _ him.

He was supposed to be Taako’s soulmate. Leaving because he couldn’t stomach the fact that Taako had been responsible for so many deaths was one thing.

Trying to kill him because he wanted a part in a  _ stupid cooking show _ more than he wanted Taako was another.

Even still, instead of the blinding rage and pain he should be feeling, it was just numb.

Tearing his eyes away from the beautiful curves of the music notes running down his arm, Taako grabbed a blanket. Throwing it over his head, he tried to fight back his upset stomach.

He was certain in that moment that he’d never actually loved Sazed, and for that, well, he wasn’t sure if he could blame the guy for wanting to get rid of him.

—

When he decided to meet up with the Grim Reaper at the goddamn fucking chug n’ squeeze, it had been, well, it had been a  _ joke. _ The dude was handsome yeah, and hilariously easy to fluster for being well,  _ death, _ so he figured it’d be funny. He needed funny right now, after the whole shitstorm in Refuge.

It was probably because of that. He was still fucked up from it all, raw in a way he didn’t like and wasn’t used to. So when Kravitz stated being all weird and nice, Taako had started to go the whole dumb honesty route.

Still, he hadn’t expected anything to come from it still. He was pretty sure Kravitz was humoring him after all, and hey, it didn’t seem like the dude got out a lot. He was probably thankful to be in a place that wasn’t some creepy necromancy lair.

And then Kravitz was asking if this had been for ‘business or pleasure’ and Taako was saying a bunch of shit without thinking. Even when weird undead shit and possessed umbrellas interrupted them, he was asking if he’d hear from Taako again.

He didn’t- It wasn’t unheard of, people dating again after losing their soulmate. Sure, some people had multiple tattoos for multiple soulmates, (and some people had none, so Taako didn’t know why he didn’t have that instead of ending up with something so fucking shitty) but sometimes people didn’t feel like it needed to be something destined like that to work. Or maybe some people were scared of being alone. Whatever the reason, it wasn’t Taako’s business.

So he said yeah, only realizing after Kravitz left that he didn’t actually know if he dude  _ had _ a soulmate. He was death and ancient and shit, if he had one, he would’ve found them by now, right?

He used to be alive (wanted to be a conductor, and there was a split second where Taako’s eyes had darted to his arm, but that was fucking stupid. The soulmark was hidden anyway, so it didn’t even matter) so he probably had someone back then. Which after so long, he couldn’t fault the guy if he wanted to start dating again.

As long as he wasn’t hoping for Taako to turn out to be his soulmate, he wouldn’t mind.

—

Kravitz wasn’t too sure what was happening in his life, er, death anymore, but he wasn’t complaining.

He hadn’t expected meeting up with Taako again to go like that, and he for sure hadn’t expected to keep meeting up with him. It wasn’t super often, they were both busy people, but it was much more than he’d ever imagined seeing someone after so long without.

More often than not now, he’d find himself thinking about Taako. When that happened, he would often get rid of his sleeve and stare at the tattoo there.

He was trying not to get his hopes up. Taako was, well, he was certainly more reserved than first impressions would dictate. That was a bit of a relief though, after so long without having any meaningful interactions with someone who wasn’t a god or a deity, he was content to take things slow.

Still, he couldn’t help but notice things. The pink tourmaline was obviously the first thing that drew his attention (and he refused, no matter what, to believe that anyone else who’d been in that lab that day could even have a chance of being his soulmate).

The second thing that ended up catching his eye was what Taako had said when they were at the wine and pottery place. Well, one of the things he said, a lot of what he’d talked about there had been interesting, but an offhand comment had drawn his attention.

‘As far as anyone else knows, my career as a chef is over.’

It was silly, but he’d been staring at a frying pan on his arm for the better part of at least 800 years. Someone mentioning they used to be a chef couldn’t help but ping his interest.

He didn’t press it, but every time he met up with Taako again he found himself thinking about it. The arcane symbols could fit, Taako was a very powerful wizard. He’d always assumed the weasels were rather symbolic, and well, he could see how that could fit Taako too. He was certainly a tricky person.

Still, he was trying despite himself not to get his hopes up too much. At least, he was until one night when he had brought Taako back to his room after a date. Giant canonballs were a pretty handy mode of transportation, but his scythe was still faster. He hadn’t been meaning to stay long, but when he saw the mask strewn on the floor, he couldn’t help but jolt. Picking it up, he tried not to seem too interested.

“What’s this?” he asked, trying to sound more amused with the weasel mask than anything. Taako had already flung himself onto his bed and was kicking off his shoes when Kravitz asked, only sparing a quick glance up to see what he was talking about.

“Mongoose mask. We needed to keep our identities a secret for a mission a while ago,” Taako explained. Kravitz nodded, looking the mask over.

“Why a mongoose?” he asked, and Taako shrugged, seeming to edge more reserved again.

“Can’t be poisoned,” he said simply, and Kravitz felt like there was a story behind that.

“Taako, do you have a soulmate?”

He hadn’t meant to blurt that out, but his mouth often seemed to betray him around the elf. He saw Taako tense at the question, and shit, maybe it was too soon. Maybe he was wrong, and Taako’s soulmark was so clearly not about him.

“Used to,” he answered finally, sitting up on the bed to actually look at him again. Kravitz felt his shoulders slump, for multiple reasons.

“I’m sorry,” he said, and he truly was. “I know it might not mean much, coming from an aspect of death, but I-”

“Oh no dude, it’s not like that,” Taako cut him off, and Kravitz knew he wasn’t the best at reading Taako yet, but he’d definitely started to pick up some things. Right now, he was pretty sure the casualness he was trying to show was all fake. “He didn’t die.”

“I- he didn’t?” he asked, because that was a new one. Taako shook his head though, and Kravitz knew he shouldn’t pry, but he was insanely curious.

“No. He tried to kill me. Poison, actually, to get back to the whole mongoose thing,” Taako explained, and Kravitz found himself frozen in shock for a moment. He’d said it so casually, but it was-

“Taako, that’s  _ horrible,”  _ he said, and Taako shrugged.

“Yeah, and that’s why I’m not with the dude anymore,” he said, and Kravitz didn’t know what to do. A part of him was absolutely furious. He couldn’t believe someone could be lucky enough to have Taako as a soulmate and choose to throw him away and hurt him like that. He couldn’t believe fate would deal him something so cruel.

He realized then that he’d fallen even harder than he thought.

“What about you?” Taako asked, knocking him out of his train of thought. “You got a soulmate?”

“No,” Kravitz said, lying without thinking. Taako had teased him about always wearing suits, but in that moment he was grateful, since it meant Taako hadn’t seen his tattoo yet.

“Oh?” Taako asked, and Kravitz nodded.

“I mean, I suppose I might’ve, at one point. Whoever they were though I never got a chance to meet them. I’m sure they’ve been dead for centuries,” he elaborated, and Taako nodded once again.

“Sorry dude,” Taako said, and Kravitz shrugged the slightest bit, not sure what to say anymore. “I should get some sleep. Director’s gonna be busting our asses in the morning with training bullshit,” Taako said.

“Right, I’ll let you get some rest,” Kravitz said, putting the mask down. “I’ll talk to you later?” he asked, and Taako nodded.

“For sure my man, later,” he said, and with that Kravitz opened a rift back to the astral plane and stepped inside. As soon as it closed and he was alone, he let his face fall into his hands.

This wasn’t good at all. He was fairly certain he’d somehow fallen in love with Taako.

He wondered if it was possible to have a soulmate who wasn’t yours in return.

Gods, Kravitz didn’t want to find out.

—

Fuck.

This wasn’t good.

He hadn’t meant for things to get serious with Kravitz.

Taako couldn’t even complain about it either, because this was his own damn fault. If he didn’t want shit to go down, he could stop fucking meeting up with the dude. He could break it off. Kravitz was a nice enough guy that if Taako told him he wasn’t feeling like it was working out, he’d respect that.

But he wasn’t doing any of that, and he didn’t know what was going on anymore.

Kravitz had asked about his soulmate, and that was something he was trying not to think about at all cost.

Because he didn’t know what to think anymore.

It was- It wasn’t hard to make a case for his soulmark matching Kravitz. It was pretty damn easy, in fact. The easiest thing was the feathers, like, come on. Raven queen, black feathers, if Kravitz had been his soulmate that was honestly lazy in its symbolism.

The music was another easy connection. Kravitz had wanted to be a conductor, and the more he hung out with him the more it showed. He wasn’t constantly throwing music in his face, but it was easy to see the way his eyes lit up whenever he heard a particularly nice piece. Wasn’t hard to notice the way he would hum and tap his finger to beats Taako had never heard before.

When asked if he ever played an instrument, Kravitz had embarrassingly explained that he used to be a bard. It took some convincing to actually get him to play something, but when he did it was nice. He claimed to be rusty but it still sounded good to Taako. Simple, but elegant.

He tried not to think any further than that though.

One thing he kept telling himself, not let himself get wrapped up in dumb ideas, was that Kravitz’s eyes weren’t blue. They were a deep red that glowed, and when Taako asked what they’d been when he was alive, he’d said they were brown.

So he tried to push those thoughts out of his mind. Kravitz said he didn’t have a soulmate, that whoever it was must’ve died ages ago, and so they were on the same page here. They weren’t doing this with any sort of delusions that it was meant to be, they were just doing it because it was fun.

Taako’s mind kept skipping back to the idea though, as much as he tried to ignore it. It wasn’t like with Sazed, where he couldn’t help but think about it because he was always there and forcing himself to the front of Taako’s mind.

He kept thinking about this because he  _ liked _ Kravitz.

And that was fucking terrifying.

Taako hadn’t seen Kravitz since he’d asked about soulmates, but they’d talked on their stones of farspeech a few times. At least he could say he wasn’t deliberately avoiding the dude. The director had kicked their training into overtime, even more so than it’d been before.

They’d been planning to meet up for midsummer though, but the director had just dropped another relic mission on them. Climbing out from under his bed when he’d stashed the flaming raging poisoning sword of doom, he pulled out his stone of farspeech. Magnus was off doing something, so he figured he had a few minutes.

“Hey, you there my dude? Gonna have to do a change of plans,” he said, and after a moment he heard Kravitz on the other end.

“I’m here Taako, is something wrong?” he asked, sounding genuinely concerned. Everything about him always seemed so fucking genuine, Taako didn’t know what to do with it.

“Eh, not exactly, but gonna have to cancel on tomorrow. The director’s sending us out for another relic and it sounds like this one’s gonna be a bitch and a half,” he said, and he could imagine the look of disappointment on Kravitz’s face at that.

“Oh, that’s alright Taako. I know how important your work is,” he said, and even though he definitely sounded disappointed, he didn’t sound mad about the last minute cancel.

“I mean, we should be pretty free once we get back though. The director tends to let up on shit for a bit after we bring one back, since they gotta find the next and shit,” he said.

“We’ll have to take advantage of that then,” Kravitz said, and Taako found himself nodding. Getting to see Kravitz more often sounded good. It was tempting, in a way it really shouldn’t be.

“For sure my guy,” he said. There were a few short moments of silence before Kravitz spoke up again, and when he did he sounded worried.

“Taako?”

“Yeah?”

“Please be careful,” he said, and the obvious care in his voice made something twinge in his chest.

“Of course,” Taako managed after a moment. “Talk to you once we’re all back and victorious and shit,” he added.

“I can’t wait,” Kravitz said, and with that Taako hung up his stone of far speech, putting it back under his shirt and leaving the room.

There was a feeling in the pit of his stomach that he couldn’t place. It happened whenever he talked to Kravitz, and it’d been getting worse and worse lately. He wasn’t even sure if he’d call it a bad feeling, it was just… a feeling.

He liked it, a lot, more than he was comfortable with.

But he could think about that after they got out of wonderland.

—

Kravitz had been disappointed when Taako had canceled their date, especially since they hadn’t seen each other since he’d gone and asked about his soulmate. He could understand though, especially since he’d had to call out of dates early and such a few times due to his own job.

He could remember the relic wars, so he knew how important Taako’s job to collect and destroy the items was. So he couldn’t complain about one missed date.

Of course, that also made him extremely worried for Taako’s safety. He remembered the massive death tolls there had been, and this was the first time in a very, very long time that Kravitz had someone to be afraid of losing.

He wasn’t able to think about that for too long though. In the middle of worrying about how Taako was doing on his mission, pacing aimlessly along the sea of souls, something had gone wrong. He noticed a moment too late to avoid being pulled underneath the inky blackness that had begun coating the water.

The next thing he’d seen was Magnus and Taako’s souls floating in through a rift in the astral plane, and before he could see anything else he was pull back under the water.

When he finally,  _ finally _ managed to break free from the strange ink that trapped him, he didn’t see any signs of them. He didn’t see any signs of anyone, and when he managed to shut himself into the eternal stockade, he found he was trapped in his plane.

In a last ditch, futile effort, he tried to contact Taako on his stone of farspeech.

But there was nothing.

And Kravitz…

Well, Kravitz wasn’t going to give up here.

He didn’t have many options at his disposal, not trapped here like he was, but there was one thing he’d always had a knack for. He was sure the Raven Queen, once he managed to get in contact with her again, would understand.

He’d been fruitlessly trying to cut some sort of rip out of the astral plane with legion when the visions hit him.

It dropped him to his knees, trying to comprehend the vast, vast story playing out in his head, feeling his heart stirred by the absolutely beautiful song that surrounded him.

There was  _ so much _ in the story, so much to focus on it was nearly overwhelming, most likely would have been if it wasn’t for the song holding it all together.

Despite that, his mind latched onto one aspect, and oh.

Oh gods.

And he thought he was in love with Taako _ before. _

He was still kneeling, still working through a hundred years worth of revelations when the scene changed around him. The ground was a solid, perfect blue, and phantoms of a town were shimmering around him.

Looking up, he could see Taako, kneeling over the solid sapphire ground. Could see him in his mind, traveling through 100 worlds in 100 years.

Could see him, studying countless nights over books written in an arcane language Kravitz couldn’t understand, the one of his home planet.

Could see him, laughing with his sister and one Barry Bluejeans, dedicating themselves to learning the language of this new world from a family of mongooses.

Could see him cooking, cooking, always cooking. Always with a joy, a passion about it, that was absolutely mesmerizing.

And he could remember seeing him for that first time. Strange and bewildering and utterly  _ fascinating _ , in a floating lab completely coated in pink tourmaline crystals.

And he knew.

“How… how did you  _ do _ that?”

—

A lot had happened.

That was an understatement, but it was hard to find something that wasn’t.

They survived wonderland, for the most part, which seemed so long ago now but it’d been less than a day. And then the Red Robe turned out to be Barry Bluejeans, and then they betrayed the directo- Lucretia. And the Lucretia had betrayed them.

And 100 years had come back to him and Lup, oh gods,  _ Lup. _ But she was back, he lost his sister but now she was back and it was too much and somehow not enough at the same time. He couldn’t stop to process any of it because the world was ending still and he was learning how to make a taco.

When Lup had asked him to make a portal to another plane, he knew which was it was going to be immediately. He knew it for a selfish reason, because maybe the divine plane or something like that would be more helpful, but he wanted to see Kravitz.

The black glass turned to perfect sapphire, and when he looked up he could see Kravitz, kneeling almost dazed in the center of town.

Everything was so blue, the  _ exact _ shade of blue.

God, he’d been such a fucking idiot, taking this long to realize.

When he ran up to him Kravitz had stopped him and started warming up his face, and Taako nearly doubled over in laughter before finally getting to pull him into a kiss.

It was a lot easier to tell what love felt like with his heart back.

Whatever he’d had before with Sazed wasn’t anywhere  _ close _ to this.

When he dropped his glamour for Kravitz, he almost went and dropped the prestidigitation still hiding the tattoo. He didn’t, mainly because he didn’t want to distract from the change that happened to him in wonderland.

He didn’t have a chance to show him afterwards, because the world was still ending and they needed to get on that.

And well, they did. They saved the world and Taako had his sister and his family back and there was still so much. Too fucking much he couldn’t begin to sort out, but right now he was alone. It was the first time he’d been alone since everything had started to go down, and he knew Kravitz was probably busy. A lot had happened, and he had an important job and needed to help clean up the absolute mess the world had been left in.

After a lot of debating, Taako went to pull out his stone of farspeech.

And then stopped, because he didn’t  _ have _ it anymore. God damn it Barold, he’d have to get him to buy him a new one pronto.

Before he could sulk too much over that, he heard a familiar rip in the fabric between the planes and his head shot up to see Kravitz stepping through nervously.

“I’m sorry I- I’m sure you probably want some time alone, but I just, I heard you got back alright but I needed to see you and make sure yo-”

Taako didn’t bother to let him finish his whole spiel, launching himself at Kravitz. Who for his part did do a good job of catching him, laughing in obvious relief and not trying to block Taako from his face any this time.

“Hey,” Taako said after a moment, not able to fight back the dumb smile on his face. Kravitz was smiling back just as much though.

“Hey,” he said, and Taako found himself laughing again. This was so stupid.

“Hey, so uh-”

“Hey,” Kravitz cut in, teasing. Taako stuck his tongue out at him, not actually mad in the slightest.

“Right, so uh, you got a minute? Cause I got something I kinda want to show you but if you’re just popping in and out real quick it can wait,” he said, trying to fight down the nervousness. Or, not nervousness exactly. Excitement.

“I’ll need to get back soon, but I have a moment,” Kravitz said, and okay. Okay.

Before he could think twice and chicken out, Taako dispelled the prestidigitation. Kravitz’s eyes instantly shifted over to the newly revealed images on his arm, and Taako could see him taking them in and the gears working in his head.

“I was wrong. I think? I don’t- fuck, I don’t really know. There was a guy, obviously, I told you, who I thought was my soulmate but I don’t… I think that was wrong. I know you said you figured your soulmate died a long time ago but I just, I don’t know. I thought maybe-” he was rambling, and glad when Kravitz went and put an end to that. He was even more pleased with the method, cool lips covering his own.

When he pulled away, Kravitz seemed to debate something in his head for a moment before letting his shirt melt away into smoke. Taako was halfway through making wiggly eyebrows at him when he saw the markings on his arm.

And he started laughing.

“We’re dumb,” he said, pulling Kravitz, his  _ soulmate _ , down into another kiss.

“We really are,” Kravitz agreed. Taako had pulled back enough to grab his arm at this point, holding it out so he could see it in more detail. He could see himself in this, in a way that felt solid and real. In the same way that  _ he _ felt solid and real again, having his life restored like it was.

“I wanted to tell you sooner, but you said you had a soulmate so I thought…” Kravitz explained, tracing a finger over the feathers. 

“Yeah I really, really fucking goofed on that one,” he said, and instead of being annoyed with him Kravitz leaned down, pressing a kiss to his shoulder where the sapphire was.

“It’s alright dear. We’re, well, we’re certainly not going to be at a loss for time,” Kravitz said, and yeah. Yeah, they had all the time in the world, now.

“I need to get back, there’s a lot- a lot of work to be done cleaning up the apocalypse, but I’ll be back soon, alright?” he said, and Taako nodded. He had to push down the bolt of fear that ‘back soon’ shot through him, but he was too fucking happy to let it sour the moment too much.

“Right, my stone of farspeech got destroyed, but I’ll give you a call as soon as I get a new one, alright?” he said, and Kravitz nodded, giving Taako one more kiss before pulling back and tearing another rip in the planes.

“Oh! And uh, Kravitz?” Taako called before he could step through the portal.

“Yes Taako?” he asked, turning back towards Taako, a smile still on his face. He’d materialized a shirt back on (no fair) but the sleeves were short, showing off a good chunk of the intricate tattoo.

“I love you.” He hadn’t said those words to someone since that night in the old Sizzle It Up cart, and his voice sounded nothing like the croaked, horsed whisper it had been before. He actually sounded happy.

“I love you too, Taako,” Kravitz said back, so obviously meaning it. And then he stepped back through the portal and it closed, and Taako was left alone.

But for once, he wasn’t feeling lonely.

Holding his arm out in front of him, Taako traced his fingers over the lines of music notes, humming a song Kravitz had played for him on one of their dates.

He might not of known what love had felt like before, but there was no doubt in his mind now. 

This was it, and he was so  _ fucking _ happy. 

**Author's Note:**

> this got much longer than i intended it to, but it's done! I was talking about a soulmate au on my tumblr a few days ago and I couldn't resist writing something for it. 
> 
> It wasn't explicit in the fic, but Sazed's soulmate tattoo was a fake. He was one of the people born without a soulmate, and he decided that since he liked Taako he'd take matters into his own hands. At least until he didn't like Taako anymore. 
> 
> As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
